How many times a day does it happen? You're scrolling your feed; you're texting; you're checking the news—wherever you check the news—and the image in the square starts to move. A voice, or maybe it's music, reaches out from the top of the page. Your screen comes to life. How many times?

Well, as of last November, it happens eight billion times on Facebook alone—each day. On YouTube, as of January, four billion. On Snapchat—Snapchat, which literally did not exist five years ago—it happens seven billion times per day. Video is part of our lives in ways we never could've imagined. The transformation has been total, maybe even more profound than what photography's undergone. A decade ago, you needed 30 pounds of expensive equipment and a set of highly specialized skills to tell your story in a professional-grade video. Now all you need is an iPhone.

That's unlocked a world of story. And because smartphones go everywhere, it's unlocked the world itself. Whether in dispatches from friends and family or inspirational clips from people we've never met; whether in 15-second one shots from the Instagram app or tight two-minute arcs cut in Final Cut Pro, we're seeing more of our world every day. Travelers are telling their stories in real time, as they happen: discoveries, challenges, joys. They open the experience to us. They open themselves. And we, their viewers, see and learn and feel, all from halfway across the world.

At Traveler, we feel this change as fundamental—not just to how we talk about travel, but to travel itself. And to travelers. Which is why we created the Shorties Film Festival—to celebrate the exuberance, ingenuity, and beauty of the films you make. Which are themselves celebrations of the surprise and delight that is travel.

Last year, we received more than 1,300 submissions from three continents. We had films about surfing, films about flying, and films about gelato. We had walkabout films—stories of journeys across the world distilled into a few bright and fleeting seconds. And, of course, we had films about simple escapes to the beach. You can see our favorites—and yours—here.

So bring our screens to life. Show us your #Explorations, and let us see your #Firsts. Share your stories of #Happiness, #Love, and #Flavor. Submitting a film is simple; just go to cntraveler.com/shorties and upload it. Or, submit directly from Instagram or Twitter by tagging your video with #CNTravelerShorties. The contest lasts from now until May 13, and we'll be announcing winners in June. Winning videos will get posted to our site, and one lucky filmmaker in the #Happiness category will win a trip to Aruba.